


Tradition

by LuthienLuinwe



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Dick Grayson is a Good Guardian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 17:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14241930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuthienLuinwe/pseuds/LuthienLuinwe
Summary: Five times Bruce participated in a Wayne family tradition, and one time he couldn't.





	Tradition

Thomas Wayne held many beliefs, but chief among them was the importance of family time, be it with the entire family, alone time with his wife, or his father-son days with Bruce. From museum trips to out of country mini-vacations, they had done it all. At least, he thought they had done it all. At least until their butler had pointed out that Thomas had never once taken Bruce to a baseball game.

And so it was that Thomas and Bruce Wayne headed to the field to see the Gotham Knights play.

Bruce had argued that he didn’t want to go. “But baseball is so boring,” he had complained. Thomas had told him he would live, and that the first baseball game was a rite of passage every father and son should have.

Surprisingly enough, Bruce had gotten quite invested in the game, and had picked up on the rules almost immediately. Hell, by the fifth inning he was explaining things to Thomas.

“That was so cool!” Bruce had exclaimed as they left the stadium. The Knights had won 10-4, and Bruce was positively beaming with excitement. “Did you see when they hit it and it went all the way to the fence?”

“I did,” Thomas laughed and kept an eye on his son to the car.

“Can we go again?” Bruce asked, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

“Of course,” Thomas smiled and got into the car. “And one day, when you’re older, you’ll have to take your sons.”

Bruce had talked the entire way home, and Thomas would have sold his soul to keep his son that happy forever.

* * *

It had been a month since Bruce had brought Dick home, and the boy had been nothing short of moody. Bruce couldn’t blame him too much for that though, after all, he had seen his parents fall to their deaths just a few weeks prior. Still, he wished there was something he could do about it.

“If I may, Master Bruce,” Alfred sat across from Bruce, who was going over a few corporate reports. “Perhaps now would be a good time to take Young Master Dick to his first baseball game?”

Bruce set the folders down and glanced over at the butler, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that sooner. He remembered how happy his first Knights game had been, and though he didn’t quite imagine Dick as the baseball type, he was willing to give it a shot. “I’ll look into it,” he promised and tried to pick the folder up.

Alfred took the folder from him and placed two tickets into his hand instead. “Do enjoy yourselves.”

Dick had complained the entire first seven innings of the game. He didn’t want to be there. He wanted to go home and practice his flips. He wanted to get ready to start at his new school. He wanted to hunt down and kill Tony Zucco himself… Bruce made a mental note that he was really going to have to help the boy with his anger problems. “Baseball is so boring. Circuses are more fun. We do fun stuff. They just run in a circle.”

And then a foul ball had flung right in their direction. Dick had flinched away, but Bruce had caught it and given it to him, and the boy had lit up almost instantly. “Do I get to keep it?”

“You get to keep it,” Bruce smiled, actually smiled for the first time in what felt like years. 

“That’s so cool!” the nine-year-old had beamed.

And had talked Bruce’s ear off about it the entire way home.

* * *

Jason had been in complete awe when Bruce had taken him to his first baseball game. “And we actually get to go inside?” he had asked incredibly. Bruce thought he was going to faint when he saw how good their seats were. 

“We can get food too if you want,” Bruce commented as they sat down, and he thought Jason’s eyes were going to pop out of his head.

“It’s not even my birthday,” Jason had just stared as if Bruce had grown an extra head.

“Family tradition,” Bruce shrugged and watched the players warm up. “And you’re part of the family now.”

Jason had stared a moment longer before becoming completely enthralled in everything going on around him. Where as Dick had talked and complained his entire first game, Jason had just stared on in awe, marveling at every little move and eating all the junk food Bruce would let him have.

The Knights had lost, and Bruce was worried Jason would be disappointed, but the boy just kept smiling and replaying every tiny thing that had happened in the game the entire way home. “Can we go again?” he had asked eagerly.

“As many times as you want,” Bruce had promised.

* * *

He had taken Tim to a baseball game as a favor to his friend, Jack Drake. The boy’s mother had just died, and Jack had still been dealing with the aftermath, and he just needed a break, something Bruce could relate to. He was still reeling from Jason’s murder and thought that a distraction might not be such a bad idea.

Tim had asked if they could get a scorecard. Bruce had nodded and purchased one for him and watched in nothing short of awe as the boy recorded every single play. Hell, he even kept stats. “You’re a smart kid,” he observed during the seventh inning stretch.

“I know,” Tim responded. “I get all A’s.” Bruce didn’t doubt that for a second. 

“Can you show me how to do that?” Bruce asked. A few people had attempted to demonstrate the finer points of scorekeeping to him, but he had never really had much interest in it. Still, that day was about making Tim happy, or at least happier, and he had a hunch that would do it.

Tim had beamed at him. Bruce had went and bought a scorecard for himself, and Tim had spent the rest of the game explaining what marks to make when. “We’ll have to come back,” the boy decided on the way out. “You need practice.”

“I think I can make that happen,” Bruce had smiled and gotten into the car.

* * *

Cassandra was the first one that broke the tradition. Bruce’s father had insisted that watching baseball was something a father did with his son, but Bruce figured that it could work just as well with a daughter, and so he had talked the girl into going.

And she had been terrified the entire time. And Bruce had beaten himself up because she’d only been staying with him for a few weeks, and he should have known better than to throw her into a crowded, sometimes rowdy, location full of people she didn’t know and therefore couldn’t trust.

They had left during the second inning and gone home to watch the rest of the game on TV. She had become enthralled by the game, and about how amazing it was that she was watching the same thing they had just seen in person, and even though the game went into extra innings, Bruce had stayed and watched the rest of it with her, even though it meant the Batman was late for patrol.

The next morning, she had handed him a schedule of all of the baseball games set to be aired for the next month, and Bruce had promised they could watch them together.

It was the first time he’d really seen her smile.

* * *

Bruce was dead. Dick had been appointed guardian of a ten year old kid he knew almost nothing about, not to mention he was pretty sure the kid wanted to kill him, and he had no clue what to do or how to act or how to even try to start forming a relationship with Damian Wayne.

And then he saw in the paper that the Knights were set to play that evening, and he remembered going to games with Bruce, despite how much he absolutely despised the sport of baseball (because acrobatics was far superior and way more interesting). Still, he was willing to try anything, and he figured it would at least get his foot in the door with Damian.

He had snagged the usual Wayne Enterprises tickets and dragged the boy there kicking and screaming. “I don’t want to go to some foolish game,” he had protested on the drive to the stadium. “There are much better ways I could be using my time. Even your pathetic excuse for training is better than this.”

Dick had ignored him and parked the car before escorting the youngest member of the batfamily into the stadium and to their seats. “None of this makes any sense,” Damian had complained in the middle of the fifth inning. “What is going on?”

Dick had just shrugged. Had he not been on the outs with Tim, he would have had the younger man explain the game to Damian. But that wasn’t an option for the time being. “Honestly, I have no clue.”

“Then why are we here?” Damian had sighed in exasperation.

“Family tradition,” Dick had just shrugged. 

They hadn’t spoken the rest of the game, but Damian had visibly relaxed over the course of the remainder of the innings. Dick could have even sworn he saw a smile once or twice, however forced it might have been.

“Grayson?” Damian asked as they walked back to the car.

“Yeah?” Dick had turned to face him, more than a bit surprised that the boy was willingly talking to him.

“Promise me we never have to go to another baseball game again.”

And Dick had smiled and laughed at that because his biggest fear that night was that Damian was going to love it and he was going to be forced to go to baseball games for the rest of his life, not that he would have minded too much if it meant keeping the boy happy, or at least happier.

“I promise.”


End file.
